Caleb 67 – Responsibility

I sat staring for a few moments, trying to assimilate what Dianna had just told me. Walter Greenwood was dead? How? What had happened? Had what I’d done been responsible?

Had I killed someone?

What’s more, it seemed that I wasn’t the only one that suspected me of that crime. Maggie wanted me to come in. Did she really think that I’d do that?

“You think I killed Greenwood?” I asked Dianna, stunned at the implication.

“Of course not,” she snapped. “But I know you did something. Whatever it was you did may have caused someone else to do so. We need to know what you did.”

“We got him to ….” I began, initially about to tell her that we’d gotten him to confess to the IRS. But then I remembered that we’d turned it around. We had gone with Jules’ idea to get them to report each other.

“Oh shit,” I said.

“What?” asked Dianna.

“I found out that the person who torched our house worked for Knight.”

I went on to tell her about everything I’d found out about Greenwood and Knight, and how we’d decided to get each to confess their sins to the IRS, but at the last minute had decided to swap so that each reported the other to the IRS. Greenwood would report Knight, as well as taking all his funds and donating them to charity, and Knight would report Greenwood. Also he’d report himself to the State Bar, telling them that he’d broken attorney-client privilege.

“I figured that once it came out that they’d reported each other, each would have no memory of doing so. They would think that it was someone else, but have no idea who it might be. They each have many enemies in one field or another.”

“Oh,” remembered, “we also told Knight’s partner that he’d been stealing from him. I think it was Greenwood that did that too.”

“So,” postulated Dianna, “either Knight’s partner challenged Knight, or he found out that Greenwood had turned him into the IRS. That would indicate that Knight has a contact within the IRS. Either way, Knight is my prime suspect.”

I sat stunned by this revelation. Had we caused the death of Walter Greenwood? We’d tried to be careful to ensure that nothing like this happened, but it seemed that we’d not been careful enough. What we’d done may have been directly responsible for a man’s death.

“Caleb,” Dianna said, as if she could read my thoughts even through the phone, “You didn’t do this. Whoever killed Greenwood, you are not responsible. Remember also that he and Knight arranged to have your house burned down, and you or any one of your girls might have been inside.

“Yes you got Greenwood to report Knight to the IRS, and his partner, but if indeed it was Knight, HE was the one responsible for Greenwood’s death, not you.”

“Maggie wants you to come in and detail exactly what you did,” she went on. “There’s no doubt that you went off piste with this, but we need to limit any damage.”

“I’m on my way,” I said resignedly.

“What happened?” asked Mary, having heard only half the conversation. I gave them all the memory of the call. Jules paled.

“That was my idea,” she said. “I killed him…”

“No,” said Mary. “Whoever pulled the trigger did that. Don’t you be taking responsibility for someone else’s actions. Also, we all agreed.” She turned to me. “Let’s go.”

“Go?” I asked.

“We’re coming with you,” she said. “Whatever happened, we all decided on the course of action to take, so we each bear some of the responsibility. BUT NONE of us is responsible for Greenwood’s death. Let’s get that straight right now.”

Jules nodded but still looked shaken by events.

Josh and Louise dropped Melanie and Sarah off at the FBI Office and then went back to the hotel. We’d organize transport home when we were done. I parked my truck in the parking lot and Mary, Jules, Amanda, Ness, and I walked up to meet up with the other two girls outside. The front was all locked up.

I called Maggie.

“Hi Maggie,” I said.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“We’re outside the office. It’s all locked up,” I said.

“We?” she asked, but then checked herself, “Never mind. There’s a staff entrance around the right-hand side of the building. I’ll meet you there.”

We walked down the alley to the right of the building, where there was a plain door. It looked like a fire exit, but had a swipe card access with keypad by which it could be opened from the outside. I’d never seen it before, having always used the front entrance.

The door buzzed and then opened. Maggie pushed the door open and, on seeing all of us there, stood back to let us in.

“You didn’t all need to come,” she said.

“Yes,” said Mary, “we did. If what we did was instrumental in what happened to Walter Greenwood, then we were all involved.”

Maggie nodded and then guided us all to the elevator lobby. We took the elevator to her floor and went into her office. Dianna and Frank Howe were seated in the office waiting for us. There were some agents working at desks in their cubicles.

We had to grab some extra seats so we all had somewhere to sit, but eventually we were all seated in Maggie’s office.

“Dianna told us what you told her on the call,” said Maggie. “I’d like to hear it from you?”

“Would it be quicker to give you the memories?” I asked. Maggie looked at Frank and he nodded.

It took me a moment to collate the memories, starting from the night that Trevor came to dinner and ending with the night I took action, using illusions on the six men who’d actually been responsible for torching our house, and then compelling both Walter Greenwood and Knight to report each other to the IRS. I left nothing out.

“Well,” said Frank. “Remind me not to piss you off. That nightmare was brutal.”

Maggie gave him a flat look.

“First.” She said looking at me, and then at Jules. “You are not responsible for Greenwood’s death. Whoever decided to kill him may have been motivated by what you did, but saying that makes you responsible would be the same as saying that if you’d killed Ray Purcell, he was responsible because he torched your house. The person responsible for Greenwood’s death is the person that pulled the trigger.

“Having said that, the fact that he is dead, if it turns out that Knight did kill him, and the motive was, in fact, the IRS report, then what you did will come out. The fact that you used your powers in such a way will be brought out. You can expect some fallout from that. All of you.

“Caleb might have been the one that used his powers, but you are all conspirators.”

“I don’t understand,” said Mary. “Let’s assume, for now, that Knight did kill Greenwood, and that the reason was the IRS report. How does that involve us in any way?”

“The investigators will come to you,” said Maggie. “It’s common knowledge that you suspected Greenwood of burning your house down. Therefore, you had motive to kill Greenwood.

“So?” she asked. “I’m sure there are other people with motive to kill him. I’m sure that if Caleb searched the memories he took from Greenwood he could give you a list of people who had grievances against him. He stole from an awful lot of people. Who’s to say that one of them didn’t find out and decide to take revenge?

“Having motive to kill him is not the same as killing him, and you know for certain that we did not do so.”

Maggie looked at Frank.

“She’s right,” he said. “We certainly don’t have enough to establish probable cause for Caleb or the girls. In my opinion, what they did was incredibly measured. They couldn’t know that Knight was going to kill Greenwood if and when he found out.”

“Do we actually know that to be the case?” I asked. “Did Knight kill Greenwood?”

Dianna shrugged. “We have no idea,” she said. “Until you told me your story, we didn’t even know about Knight. Up until this moment we had absolutely no reason to suspect him.

“You could check the IRS report on Knight,” Amanda said. “That should lead back to Greenwood. It would give you a reason to speak to him at least.”

“But why would we be investigating that in the first place?” asked Maggie. “We need a trail to follow. Leaps of intuition like that have to be explained. You need to remember that people know me and Dianna and about our powers. They also know about you. If we start making those kinds of connections without some solid evidence of how we’d arrived at things, questions are going to be asked about how we came about certain information.”

There was a knock on the door.

Agent David Spencer poked his head in.

“They’ve found Greenwood’s car,” he said.

Maggie looked up.

“Where?” she asked.

“California. Local PD spotted it entering a chop shop they were watching,” he said.

“How long ago?” she asked.

“About thirty minutes,” he said. “It took that long for it to filter through to us. The field office wanted to raid the shop, but the locals are reluctant. They’ve been sitting on this shop as part of an operation targeting organized car thefts for some time. They say it will compromise their investigation if we raid the shop now.”

“Tell the field office to go” Maggie said. “That car is the only legitimate lead we have at the moment on Greenwood’s killer.”

She turned to us.

“You guys go back to the hotel,” she said. “As soon as we know more, I’ll let you know.”

Despite the illegality, Jules and I sat in the bed of my truck while Mary drove us all back to the hotel. There wasn’t room inside for us all and none of us could be bothered with cabs or Ubers. Both Jules and Ness, having grown up on a farm, were used to such travel so it was no big deal for her.

The valet gave us a strange look when we climbed down from the back but said nothing. He took my keys and went to park the truck.

Back in our room, we sat saying nothing, each deep in our own thoughts. After a few minutes I decided I was tired. I went through to the other room and hit the shower.

When I returned to the room, I found Sarah sitting on the edge of the bed. She’d showered in the other room and gotten into her nightwear, which consisted of a long T-shirt. I guessed she was wearing panties underneath, but I couldn’t see since the T came down to mid thigh on her.

“Caleb,” she said as I emerged from the bathroom, wearing boxers.

“You okay?” I asked her. I wondered about her reaction to her ex-boyfriend’s father’s death. She’d said that she hadn’t liked him but, even so, hearing that someone you know was murdered isn’t exactly something that happens every day.

“Can I talk to you?” she asked.

“Sure,” taking a seat on one of the chairs. “What’s up?”

“I,” she began hesitantly. Her shield meant that I wasn’t able to hear her surface thoughts. Since Tatarabuela Gonzales had taken over her’s and Melanie’s defences it would be all but impossible for me to sneak through their shields. I could break them by force, but it wouldn’t go unnoticed.

She chewed her lip for a while. I waited patiently for her to collect her thoughts.

“Ness told me,” she said, taking a different tack, “that she started sleeping with you and the girls before she was eighteen. I don’t mean having sex, I mean just sharing your bed. She said it made her feel safe.”

“She did,” I said.

“The night of the fire,” she went on, “I was scared. When we got here and all the girls got into bed with you, I just wanted to be with you all. I didn’t want to go into the other suite all on my own. The next morning when we woke up, and you weren’t there, Ness tracked you down and we all came to join you. It just felt right. It feels right.

“I don’t want to have sex with you, but sleeping in with you all makes me feel. . .safe, protected.”

“Is that why you weren’t that enthusiastic about the room in the new house?” I asked.

“I’m worried that once we move in,” she admitted, “you won’t let me sleep with you any more.”

I sighed.

“We’re apparently getting a bigger bed,” I said. “You’re welcome to share it for as long as you want. Fair warning though, a lot of sex happens in our bed. If you don’t want to see that then you might have to vacate until it’s over.”

“That’s what Jules thought you’d say,” she said. “You’ve not had sex since the fire, have you?”

“No,” I said. “Events have been kind of fraught, and I don’t think any of us have been in the mood. Things will settle down though.

“So are you going to bed?” she asked, pulling the cover back on the bed.

I nodded, standing to walk over to the bed before climbing in.

Sarah climbed in and snuggled up against me. “Thank you,” she said, wrapping her hands around my arm, like she was holding onto a security blanket.

+++++

When I woke up Friday morning, I could hear the rain hammering down outside. The wind was gusting against the windows. I slid out of bed, completed my morning routine and then went into the other suite. I looked out of the window at the rain lashing down.

“Nope,” I said to myself. “I’m not going out in that.”

“Good call,” said Melanie from behind me. She smiled at me as I turned to her, and then came over and pulled me into a hug.

“Are you okay?” she asked. I nodded.

“Surprisingly, yes,” I said. “Whether Knight killed Greenwood or not, we didn’t. I’m not taking responsibility for anyone else’s actions just because information that I caused to be revealed may have been responsible. If I’d done it with that express intention, knowing Knight would do that, then that would be different. We specifically didn’t do a lot more that we could have because we thought that others might not be as measured in their responses. The only other course of action open to us was to simply do nothing. Both Knight and Greenwood would have gotten away with it and, who knows, maybe even come back again.”

She nodded. “Almost exactly what Mary told Jules last night,” she said.

“And how did Jules react?” I asked.

“I think she saw the sense in the argument,” she said. “I’m hoping, though, that there was some other reason for Greenwood’s death. I think Jules will still blame herself if it turns out it was simply because of what we did. Especially since it was her idea to switch them to reporting each other instead of each reporting themselves.”

“Hopefully,” I said, “we’ll learn more today.”

We decided to eat breakfast in the campus cafeteria. It had been a long time since we’d done that. Although I wasn’t attending any classes that day, I had more hypnotherapy appointments. In the morning I had three on campus and, in the afternoon, two at the range, including my ‘famous’ coke addict client. As I thought about my day, I wondered idly how he was getting on with his dealer-roadie. It was none of my business and I was determined that I wasn’t going to get involved.

Since I was going to the range in any case, after I’d finished with my third hypnotherapy client, I went back to the hotel and picked up my weapons. I knew, from the knowledge I’d taken from Dean that, even though they looked okay and there was little evidence in the safe that it had gotten very hot in there, there may be some damage that wasn’t visible. I was certain that Hoss would know someone who could check them over for me.

“Hi, Hoss,” I said, entering the range and walking up to the counter.

“Afternoon,” he said. “You have two sessions this afternoon?”

“Yes,” I said, “but I wanted to ask you something.”

I took out both weapons and placed them on the counter.

“I wondered if you knew anyone that could check these over for me,” I informed him. “They seem okay, but they were in the fire and I don’t want to risk firing them without getting someone who knows more than me to look at them first.”

“Good call,” he said. “I know a guy that could do it for you. Will you leave them with me? I’ll text you with a price when I’ve spoken to him.”

“I’m not worried about that,” I said. “If you think the price is reasonable, then just go ahead let him do what’s needed. Do you want me to give you some money up front?”

“Nah,” he said. “It won’t be huge, and I know you’re good for it.”

“Thanks Hoss,” I said.

I turned to enter my ‘office’ just as my first client came through the door. I smiled at them, and showed them in to begin their session.

Halfway through the session my phone beeped. Maggie.

_Are you free anytime this afternoon?

_I’ll be free after three.

­_Can you come to the office then?

­_Will do.

I was hopeful that that meant that there was good news. The best outcome for us was that Knight had nothing to do with Greenwood’s death. The fact that she’d asked me to come in when I was free, rather than demanding my presence, was a good sign.

I finished off with my hypnotherapy clients. My famous client was doing well. I neither asked about, nor did he mention, his roadie turned dealer. I figured that he’d dealt with him. Since I’d not heard anything in the news about him being a drug user, I assumed that he’d probably paid him off or something like that. I wondered how much that would have cost him, but I wasn’t really that interested nor was I interested in finding out that something more sinister had happened, so I stayed well out of his mind.

I arrived at the FBI office at just after three fifteen and made my way straight to Maggie’s office. Maggie’s PA, Cuthbert, smiled at me as I approached his desk.

“You can go straight in,” he said. I noticed his eyes wandering up and down as I walked past him. Maybe one day soon I’d give him another illusory peek.

Maggie looked up as I entered her office. She was typing something on her laptop, but nodded to the chair opposite hers, while she finished up. After a minute she closed the laptop lid and looked across her desk at me.

“We found the killer,” she said.

I didn’t speak, just waiting for her to say more.

“It had nothing to do with Knight,” she went on. “There was a car theft ring out of California. They targeted prestige cars, finding them on social media or car enthusiast forums. Then they’d steal them to order. Their normal MO was to either rob houses to steal keys or carjack the owner. We think they were trying the former and Greenwood got in the way.

“We found the murder weapon in the car and the killer was still in the chop shop when we raided it. They were in the process of removing all the identification plates when we hit them. From what we understand, the car would then have been exported abroad.”

“Greenwood didn’t strike me as the type to join and enthusiast group,” I said.

“He wasn’t,” she said. “It seems that his son had been posting pictures of both his Shelby and his father’s car on his facebook page. We found several pictures of the cars matching ones that Trevor had posted.”

I nodded sadly. “So what now?” I asked.

“Well, since there is no connection to Knight,” she said, “then there is no reason for anything you did to come out. It’s case closed with a cut and dried motive and a solid evidence trail to the killer.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Make no mistake,” she said sternly. “You dodged a bullet big time on this one. Knight will probably go down, unless his partner decides to take drastic action against him. But since there’s no connection at all between you and Knight, there’s no reason for anyone who doesn’t know what I know to even glance in your direction.”

“I know,” I said. “We did try to make sure that there would be no permanent repercussions, but…”

“You can never guarantee what people will do,” she said more gently. “No matter what safeguards you put in place there will always be people that will do something unexpected, or someone else in the mix that you didn’t anticipate.

“Perhaps this will be an object lesson for you, and for the girls. If you’d come to me with what you’d discovered we might have been able to get to Knight in a safer, more legal, way. It may have taken a little longer, but we’d have gotten it done. “

Once more I nodded.

She stared at me for a long moment.

“Go home,” she said, then corrected herself, “or at least back to the hotel. Try to stay out of trouble?”

“I will,” I said. “And thanks.”

She shook her head.

I was just about to leave her office when she spoke again. “Caleb?”

I turned to face her.

“Are you still thinking about joining the bureau?” she asked.

I  nodded, “Yes,” I said.

“Have you put in an application yet?” she followed up.

“No,” I said. “I thought…”

“Do it soon,” she said. “The process is long and, despite you powers, you still have to go through it all. It can take up to a year, which will be just about the right timing for when you finish school. Unless you were going to be one of these lazy bums that insists on taking a ‘gap year’ before starting work?”

I laughed at her.

“No ma’am,” I said. “I want to get started as soon as I can.”

“Then get started on applying,” she said.

“I will,” I said. “Thanks again.”

The girls were all back at the hotel by the time I arrived. Once again, I gave them all the memory of the talk I’d had with Maggie. Jules sagged visibly in relief.

“She was right,” she said after a few minutes.

“How so?” I asked, although I already thought I knew.

“You can’t predict how people are going to react,” she answered. “We all need to be so much more careful about what we do. It’s one thing to use your powers during actively defending yourself, but revenge? That’s something we really shouldn’t be getting involved in.”

Mary nodded. “I agree,” she said. “We were all guilty of that though. We were all angry at what they’d done to our house and we wanted to get our revenge. None of us spoke out against it. Like Maggie said, we all dodged a bullet and we should learn from it.

“That being said, we weren’t responsible for Trevor’s dad’s murder and so we should put this behind us, and move on.”

“Yeah,” said Amanda. “We’re supposed to be going out with Gracie and Dana tonight. It’s party time!!”

+++++

I’ll admit that I wasn’t really in the mood to go out and party. Despite it coming out that we’d had nothing to do with Greenwood’s death, the close call had shaken me badly. The thought of celebrating when someone I knew had just been murdered seemed wrong.

The girls, though, seemed to feel that the celebration was definitely in order. We’d been exonerated of blame in his death and I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that there hadn’t been a few fleeting thoughts of ‘he got what he deserved,’ some of them mine.

We met Gracie and Dana in the reception on the eight floor and went out from there. The night started in a bar and then we moved onto a club. The mixture of alcohol, camaraderie, and jollity was enough to massively improve my mood, although I did notice that I didn’t seem to be as affected by the drink as much as I had before. I wondered about that and then realized that I was healing away the effects of the alcohol, or rather my built-in guardian angel was. I know I drank more than enough to get steaming drunk, and yet I had nothing more than a pleasant buzz going on.

I smiled to myself at that.

“What you looking so pleased about?” asked Melanie.

“It appears I can’t get drunk,” I said. “Looks like Tatarabuela Gonzales is neutralizing the alcohol before it really affects me.

“Oh!” she said. “That’s what it is! I was wondering about that. I’ve never really been drunk, but I was surprised with the way that the other girls are, that I feel so good.”

“Wait until the morning,” I said to her. “That’s when you’ll really notice the difference.”

We poured Gracie and Dana back into their room a little after two thirty in the morning. I’d suspected that they’d wanted me to spend the last night with them, but neither of them was in any condition do to more than pass out on the bed. The rest of my girls, Melanie aside, were in similar condition.

“A small illusion had I.D.’d all the underage girls in our party and so we had no trouble getting drinks. I wouldn’t normally do such a thing, but I knew that, given what had gone on, they needed to blow off steam. I also knew that they’d regret it in the morning, and it would be a good learning experience for all of them.”

I opened my eyes at four a.m. It was only just over an hour after I’d gotten to bed. I felt fine, but the room stank like a distillery. It was so bad it made my eyes water. I had thought that I would forgo my morning training given the lateness of the night, but I couldn’t stand the stink any more. I slid out of bed. Melanie, as always, opened her eyes as soon as I moved.

“Oh my god,” she said softly. “What is that stink?”

I grinned at her.

“That is the smell of the morning after,” I said quietly. “Come on – lets go get some air.”

We moved into the other room and climbed into the bed there. We both dozed off until just after nine, when I awoke once again. Melanie and I showered together and then dressed.

The stink was no better when we went back into the other suite and the girls were still out cold. I went over and opened the curtains, letting the morning light in, and then the window to get some air into the room. There were groans from the bed.

“What time is it?” came weakly from the bed. I wasn’t sure who’d asked.

“It’s after nine thirty,” I said. “Time to get up.”

There was a chorus of groans, then a scene from the living dead enacted itself before my eyes, as five, very hung-over, girls arose from the bed.

“Who wants breakfast?” I said loudly, earning myself some evil glares.

“Anyone got some acetaminophen?” asked Sarah. “My head feels like it’s about to explode.”

All eyes turned on me.

“Caleb,” Mary said.

“Hmmm?” I said pretending not to know what she wanted.

“Come on,” she said. “Don’t be mean.”

“You shouldn’t have drunk so much,” I fired back at her. “In fact, you shouldn’t be drinking at all. You’re not twenty-one until next month.”

She actually growled at me.

“You drank as much as any of us,” she said.

“And yet here I am,” I said. “Fresh as a daisy.”

Ness tried to go full bore Puss in Boots on me, but the effect was spoiled because she was still squinting in the light of the morning. I laughed and then spent the next ten minutes or so relieving their headaches and settling their stomachs. They would need to drink quite a bit of fluid today, but at least they wouldn’t feel so bad.

Ness threw her arms around me. “Thank you,” she breathed at me, I winced.

“Go shower,” I said. “You stink.”

She pouted at me but went and got showered.

By the time they had all freshened up, the room had aired, and I’d ordered breakfast from room service. We all dug in hungrily.

After breakfast we went to check in on Gracie and Dana only to find that they’d already checked out. They’d given us their new address, but we decided that we’d leave them be while they got themselves sorted out. It was an exciting time for them setting up home together and the last thing they would need would be us showing up and interfering.

That left us at a bit of a loose end. Our normal Saturday routine was to do chores around the house and do the weekly shop. Sunday would be spent catching up on schoolwork and getting ready for the week ahead.

“Why don’t we do some sightseeing?” I asked.

“Sightseeing?” asked Mary.  

“Theres a bunch of leaflets in the lobby of local attractions,” I said. “Let’s go grab some and see what this city has to offer. So far all I’ve seen is PSU and our house. Surely there’s more to Portland than that?”

“I wouldn’t mind going to the science museum,” said Jules. “It’s supposed to be really cool.”

“The art museum,” said Mary.

“The zoo,” Sarah suggested.

“We could do a coach tour,” said Melanie. “There’s some really pretty water falls to see.”

“River cruise?” suggested Ness.

I looked at Amanda, the only one who’d not made a suggestion.

“Amanda?” I said, “Any thoughts.”

“It all sounds really good,” she said. “But we’re not going to have time to do it all.”

“True,” I said. “But why don’t we plan to do something off the list every weekend for a while at least. We’ve been in the city over two years, and I’ve seen so little of it it’s embarrassing.”

“So what are we going to do today.”

“The tours,” I began, “are going to need booking. We’re probably too late to do that for today, same with the river cruising. That leaves museums and the zoo.

We looked out of the window. It was raining.

“How about we do the museums today?” I said.  “Looking at the map they are not too far apart – then we can find somewhere to get dinner. Maybe another weekend we can do the zoo or one of the tours?”

Touring the museums took everyone’s mind of what had gone on the previous night and brought us back to as close to normality as it was possible given our current circumstances. The science museum boasted the largest Lego exhibition in the world just now. The museum seemed to be pitched mostly at children, although the submarine there was incredibly interesting.

I didn’t mind that though. It was nice to have some silliness and play at being juvenile for a while. The museum of art was a nice way to wind down afterward, and we wandered around for a pleasant couple of hours. I was quite surprised at some of the art in there. I hadn’t expected there to be any works of artists that I’d heard of. I’d thought that most of the most famous works were in Europe in the galleries we’d visited in both London and Paris.

It was a pleasant surprise therefore to see Monet’s ‘Water Lillies’, which I’d heard of, and works of other artists like Van-Goch and Cezanne, who I’d also heard of. I was never really an art aficionado but there was a lot of very interesting things to look at.

There were also some exhibitions that I was certain were not art, despite them being on display. I guess there’s no accounting for taste.

Sunday, we lapsed back to our normal routine, catching up on schoolwork and getting ready for the week ahead. I was hoping that I’d hear from the realtor about the house soon. Staying in The Nines was really nice, but I wanted to be living in my own place. The hotel was starting to feel like a gilded cage.

We were falling into a new routine, working from the hotel. Monday I had a couple of  hypnotherapy appointments in the morning, and then I met Marcia at the wreck of our old house in the afternoon. She’d sent me a text asking me to meet her, and giving me a price for the site clearance.

I arrived there just after one and she was already sitting in her truck waiting.

The house itself looked even sorrier in the daylight. We’d had a couple of days of quite heavy rain and all of the stuff that had been dragged out onto the drive was sodden. The house itself seemed to have collapsed even more, with the only fully intact wall being that of the garage.

“It’s going to take about three weeks to clear the site. Marcia said as we walked around the outside of the property. I already applied for all the required permits to start the clearance.

“When can you start?” I asked her.

“As soon as the permits arrive,” she said. “If you want, I can get a dumpster delivered in the morning, and I can start loading the loose stuff in that. The drive is already chewed up, so we don’t need to worry about that any more. That way we won’t need a permit to put it on the street.

“And the rebuild?” I asked.

“I think the best thing to do about that,” she said, “is to talk to an architect. Get some plans drawn up showing what you want to build. Once you have those plans, then let me know and I can see if I can do it.

“I’m going to have to take on a couple of people to help me do the site clearance. I could do it alone, but it would take too long. I’m also going to have to rent some heavy machinery to dig out the foundation and the asphalt.”

“Could we put a basement in if we were going to rebuild?” I asked.

“You’d have to discuss that with the architect and the city planning department.” She replied. “That would add quite a bit to the price of the rebuild though. I’d recommend using a separate excavation contractor for that. They are the experts. There’s a company I’ve worked with before that I would recommend.”

I nodded. “Let’s get the site cleared before we think about that,” I said. “I can discuss house designs with the girls and then we can find an architect. Do you have any recommendations there?”

“I can give you a couple of names,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of experience with either of them, so you’ll need to look around and do your own homework on this one though.”

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks.”

“If I find anything salvageable in the house,” she said looking at the building, “I’ll let you know. I’m not hopeful though.”

“Me neither,” I said. “Anything that wasn’t destroyed by the fire was probably destroyed when they put it out.”

We stood in silence for a few moments looking at the wreckage of what had once been my home.

“Okay then,” she said finally. “If you’re happy with the numbers, I’ll get a dumpster ordered for the morning and I can start getting the stuff that’s not nailed down moved.

I nodded and walked with her back to her truck. I turned to take a last look at the house as she drove away.

I headed back to the hotel. I had a couple of hours before I was due to go for my flying lesson so I thought I might as well do as Maggie suggested and start the FBI application process. It appeared to be a very long, and very thorough, application.

When I arrived at the flying school, I was surprised to see that the Cirrus was not on the flight line. In its usual space was a Cessna 172. I looked enquiringly at Danny as he approached me.

My plane is in the shop. It developed an electrical fault during a lesson on Saturday. They are trying to track it down, so until then I’ve rented this bird. I thought that you could spend today’s lesson becoming familiar with it. If you’re happy then you can still do your solo in it Saturday. If not, then we can put it off until the Cirrus is back in the air.

“Sounds fine to me” I said. Gerry had flown 172’s many times and since I had his memories, I was very familiar with them.

We did the usual walk around. It was an older plane, way older than me in fact, but I knew that these birds went on forever as long as they were maintained properly.

After we’d been in the air for a few minutes Danny said, “Have you flown one of these before?”

I looked at him. “What makes you say that?” I asked.

“You just seem very familiar with the controls and where they are.” He replied, “It’s like you’ve not only flown one, but that you’ve flown it a lot.”

“First time,” I said. Danny shook his head.

Tuesday afternoon, when I arrived at the range, Hoss had my guns for me.

“My guy looked these over,” he said. “He says they suffered no ill effects from the fire. The gun safe you bought seems to have done its job.

I thanked him and handed over my card to pay the small fee that he’d been charged for getting the guns inspected.

During my first hypnotherapy session, I was looking through emails when a new email arrived. This was from the realtor. It was good news. They had done the due diligence with regard to anti money laundering and that had cleared with no problems. Considering the source of the funding, I hadn’t expected there to be.

She told me that the lawyers had already made contact and, that since we’d paid a small fee to expedite, she was hopeful that we could get everything in place in less time than anticipated. She predicted that we might be able to move in by the end of the month, which was three weeks away.

I sent her a message back asking if there would be opportunity for us to go take another look at the house and take some measurements and the like. We would need to order such things as blinds, curtains and furniture.

Toward the end of the afternoon, I got a mass text message from Kevin. Apparently there had been a problem with the power in the dojo. Some construction workers on the next-door site had cut the main power line and power would not be back on until probably late the next day. Therefore, that night’s class was cancelled.

I cursed. I enjoyed any excuse to get out of the glided cage that had become the hotel. The few hours at the dojo would have been a nice break. Sighing, I finished up with my hypnotherapy clients and headed back to the hotel.

Mary was looking at the news on the internet as I arrived back.

“Come look at this,” she said.

I went over and read the page over her shoulder. It seemed that the IRS had wasted no time in pouncing on Knight. He’d been arrested earlier that day on suspicion of tax fraud. His partner, Temple, had issued a statement saying that he was as shocked as anyone by his former partner’s behavior. He went on to say that they he and Knight had made the decision to dissolve their partnership before the problems with the IRS were discovered, and that he would be co-operating fully with the authorities in their investigation.

I smiled at her.

“Seems like at least part of our plan worked as intended,” I said.

“Yes,” she said. “But let’s not forget how bad things could have gotten.”

I nodded at her soberly. “It’s a lesson we’ll not forget easily.”

Mary stood up, took my hand, and guided me into the bathroom.

“I need a shower,” she said. “Join me?”

We stripped off in the bathroom and entered the shower. Despite the luxuriousness of the suite the shower, while big enough for the two of us, was no where near as large as the one in our old house. That didn’t matter at the moment though, as she pressed her body against me, pushed me against the shower wall, and kissed me, forcing her tongue deep into my mouth.

I didn’t object. I put my arms around her, grabbed her ass, and pulled her into me trapping my suddenly very hard and hot meat between us. She ground herself against me, rubbing our slick bellies together and the friction against my cock made me moan in my throat.

Mary broke the kiss and slid down my body, kissing at my chest and abs, and, with little ceremony, engulfed my manhood in her hot, wet, mouth, taking me to the root in a single slow stroke that almost made my legs give way.

I looked into her tawny eyes and saw the corners of her mouth turn up, her lips still wrapped tight around my root. Slowly she pulled back, stroking at my cock with her tongue as she sucked.

For a few moments she sat with just the head of my tool in her mouth and then once again she descended taking my full length to the back of her throat, and then she swallowed, creating even more amazing sensations in the head of my little friend.

I groaned, letting my head fall back against the wall, ignoring the pain as it thudded into the tiles.

Mary brought her hands up and began stroking and pulling gently at my balls as she sucked, increasing my pleasure. It had been only a few days since I’d last had sex with any of my girls, but a few days was like a lifetime to me, and my balls started to ache almost immediately demanding the release that they had been denied for what seemed so long. I could feel myself already climbing towards my orgasm but wanted to hold off. There was so much more I wanted to do to, and with, my tawny eyed lover.

Gently I pulled her off my cock and to her feet. Instantly she pulled me into a kiss. Although I hadn’t cum, my cock had been streaming pre cum almost since we started, and I could taste myself on her tongue. I never minded that and for some reason Mary loved me to taste myself. She shivered and through our bond I could feel her body ramping up, even though I’d barely touched her.

As we kissed, I moved slightly to her side pressing my cock into her hip. This gave me much better access to her body, while letting me continue the kiss which we did. I slid my hand down the front of her shower slick body, tracing over her breasts, and spending a  few minutes teasing at her nipples, while my other hand cupped the back of her head, preventing her from breaking the kiss. Her hands were by no means inactive though and although she could only reach me with one hand now, she had a firm grip on my cock and was wanking me slowly, using my pre cum as a lubricant while she worked her hand up and down my shaft.

I slid my hand down her belly and over her mound. Mary tilted her pelvis pressing her pussy into my hand and parting her legs slightly. I guessed that she was as frustrated as I was. None of my girls was used to going this long without sex.

Without further teasing I slid my fingers between her nether lips and began stroking her. At first I kept to just tracing the outline of her pussy, trying to avoid her clit to prevent her cumming too soon. Mary wasn’t satisfied with that and thrust her hips forward grinding her clit into the palm of my hand. She pulled back from the kiss just long enough to speak.

“Don’t tease me,” she said breathlessly before locking her lips to mine once more.

My fingers slid easily into her soaked honeypot and she moaned into my mouth. I began to stroke in and out of her, slowly at first, but increasing both the speed and the force of my thrusts, curving my fingers forward to press on her ‘special spot’.

Mary’s hips began to move involuntarily as she fucked at my hand, trying to get me to move faster, and push deeper, inside of her. I could feel her body clenching up as her orgasm started to build and I realised that she was as close to climax as I had been before I’d stopped her.

I decided not to deny her release and sped up, fingering her faster and harder as I felt her build toward her climax.

She’d stopped wanking me now, her hand still holding tight to my cock, but her concentration purely on what I was doing to her. I brought my other hand to the head of my cock and scooped up the pre cum that was collecting there, before taking it behind her and using it as a lubricant to slip first one, and then two, fingers into her asshole.

Mary squeaked at the sudden penetration but didn’t stop her thrusting against me. She did, however, start to thrust backward as well as forward, trying to get my fingers deeper into her ass as she all but fucked herself on the three fingers I had now eased into her pussy.

Her eyes were closed now, her actions driven by nothing other than the animal instinct and lust that was raging through her. She tried to break the kiss, to draw breath for the scream that I knew she wanted to loose as she came, but I held onto her, controlling her breath to extend and intensify the sensations as her orgasm ripped through her. Her grip on my cock became almost painful as she bucked and twitched, pushing backwards and forwards between the fingers in her pussy and those in her ass as she rode out her climax, milking out every last drop of pleasure from it.

Finally she twitched into an aftershock. I released her from the kiss I’d still been holding, easing my fingers out of her body. She leaned against me panting.

“I so needed that,” she said tilting her head to kiss me once again. Then she backed away, and out of the shower leaving me with a huge erection and very achy balls.

I was puzzled for a second until the bathroom door opened and a very naked Ness stepped in with a predatory smile.

“My turn,” she said stepping into the shower.

I wondered if there was a line outside the bathroom door. Was I going to have to pleasure them all one after the other?

It was only when I saw Mary’s eyes widen and another, smaller, orgasm rip through her that I figured it out.

“Amanda and Melanie?” I asked.

“Are in the other suite,” Ness said. “As soon as Amanda felt what you were doing to Mary, she grabbed Melanie and dragged her next door. Melanie didn’t take much in the way of persuasion though. Jules is ‘off’ just now, and Sarah doesn’t want to play. So, it’s just you and me.”

I smiled at her. “That’s perfect,” I said, moving toward her. She put her hand on my chest holding me off for a moment.

“It’s been so long Caleb,” she said looking up at me. “Just fuck me. Hard.”

Ness squeaked in surprise as I lifted her with TK, parting her legs and pushing her up against the shower wall. Then she yelped. “Fuck! These tiles are cold.”

I grinned at her and then stepped between her legs, sliding the head of my cock up and down her already dripping slit, before slipping my head inside her, and hilting myself in a single slow thrust.

“OHMYGOD!” she said. “That’s so good. I’ve missed this so much.”

“It’s only been about four days,” I said.

“I don’t care,” she said. “Less talking, more fucking.”

I obliged, pulling back about half my length before sliding fully into her once more.

I was already pretty close to cumming so I’d had to push my orgasm down, otherwise I’d have not lasted anywhere near long enough to satisfy the teen currently impaled on me. I could feel that she too was revved up and wouldn’t take much more than me to reach her climax.

She reached up and grabbed the sides of my head, pulling me into a kiss as I began to push in and out of her, building up a rhythm. Ness crossed her legs behind me and pulled me deeper into her on each stroke making soft whimpering noises as we kissed.

Neither of us wanted this to really last, both chasing the release that we’d been denied by circumstance for what seemed an age. I sped up my thrusts, holding down my own orgasm while pacing it so it would coincide with Ness’.

I could feel the teen building and wanted to make it as good as I possibly could for her, so at the last minute, just as she crested, I linked our bodies together. I felt the orgasm that was ripping through her body, her pussy clamping down tightly on my cock, her juices gushing out to coat my balls and thighs. Experiencing the sensation of her cumming tipped me over the edge and I thrust as deep as I could manage into her, as the first blast of my cum jetted out of my cock to paint her insides.

Her eyes widened as she felt my orgasm from both perspectives, and it pushed her into a second orgasm even before her first had fully finished.

We clung to each other each riding out the sensations of our climaxes as I emptied myself inside her. Ness twitched and writhed, moaning softly in throughout. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked up at me, grinning.

“God, I needed that,” she said.

I disentangled myself from her, lowered her back to her feet, and made sure she was steady before completely releasing my TK.

Since we were in the shower, we spent the next twenty minutes or so washing each other, before we got out, and dried off. I went back into the main room, still in a bathrobe.

Jules and Sarah were sitting playing something on one of the games consoles. It looked like a racing game. Jules looked up at me and grinned. Sarah was blushing furiously and didn’t look in my direction.

“Where’s the rest of the girls?” I asked.

“Mary went next door to shower,” said Jules. “I’ll bet she got sidetracked though.”

I stuck my head through the connecting door to find Mary, Amanda and Melanie in a tangled sweaty heap in the middle of the bed.

“You want to go out for dinner?” I asked as Melanie gave me a weary smile. “Or shall I order in?”

+++++

The next morning when I awoke, I could feel a warm wetness slowly sliding up and down my already rigid cock. I glanced down in surprise to see Melanie, her lips wrapped around me and her eyes full of mischief as she sucked on me.

I went to move my arm, to push her off me. Sarah was in bed with us and I didn’t think she would appreciate seeing that. Unfortunately Sarah had taken to sleeping while holding onto my left arm, almost as Melanie had when she first joined us. Moving that arm would wake the sleeping Sarah. My right arm was currently pinned under Amanda. I looked across to see if I could extricate myself and saw Amanda’s eyes were open and looked amused.

“Let her have this,” she said. “She’s missed you.”

“Sarah will wake up,” I returned.

“Not if you don’t make a fuss,” said Amanda. “Just relax and let her have what she wants.”

I looked down at where Melanie was continuing to slowly and gently suck on me.  I had to admit she was very, very, good at that. She didn’t need to move fast, just the slow steady motion she was using and the effects that her tongue was producing would make me cum. It might take a little longer, but it appeared that she wasn’t in any hurry.

With a quick glance at the still sleeping Sarah, I gave in and rested my head back to enjoy Melanie’s ministrations. It was difficult keeping still as she worked me up until I couldn’t resist any longer, emptying myself in several long thick spurts into her mouth.

Melanie kept sucking until I was completely finished, and then gently moved up, straddling Amanda and then kissing her deeply sharing what she’d gotten from me with her.

I glanced down once again at Sarah, just in time to see her close her eyes once again. Her scarlet face proof that she’d seen more than I’d wanted to inflict on her. I sighed. She’d been warned that, if she got in with us, things like that would happen, but I’d not really wanted to do that to her.

It seemed that the other girls, or Amanda at the very least, had other ideas.

The rest of the week passed without major events. We got into a little bit of a routine where, at some point in most evenings, one or more of the girls and I would go into the other suite and spend some time making up for the time that we’d missed out on. Sarah became less and less bothered by it and it just became something that we did. She, Jules, and any of the girls not currently involved, would stay in the main suite and chat, play video games, or watch TV.

What we didn’t expose Sarah to yet, was the time that I went through with just Melanie. After we closed the connecting door, we let Josh and Louise in through the main door, and Melanie spent some time training her compulsion with them. I had intended just to supervise but Melanie had other ideas. Although she didn’t try to use her powers on me, she ambushed me with the pair of them, and I chose not to resist.

Saturday morning, I was quite excited. It seemed strange, given the number of flight hours I had and  memories of from Gerry, but the thought of flying all the way to Nevada, and then back solo, had me a little giddy.

I’d spent the night before going over the flight plan. I’d actually planned both the outgoing and the return legs. I’d gone over it again, given the change in aircraft, although the specifications of both planes were similar. We would fly the outbound leg in a single hop, which would take about three hours. Then we’d refuel, have some lunch, and I’d fly back landing at two other airstrips on the way to satisfy the requirements of the flight for my license. Arnie was going to collect the aircraft that they were borrowing which I would use for my extended certifications. From what I remembered Danny had said it would be good for complex, high powered, and multi engine so that would kill three birds with one stone.

I  looked at the weather forecast. It was going to be a perfect day for flying. The forecast was for sunshine and only light to moderate winds. Given that it had been raining for most of the week, I was happy with that. I kissed all my girls goodbye, even getting a peck on the cheek from Sarah, and headed for the airport.

Arnie was in the flight school office when I arrived. He grinned at me when I walked in, about fifteen minutes before I’d said I would be there.

“I figured you’d be early,” he said. “Most people are. They get a little excited about their first solo flight.”

I smiled at him. “I guess,” I said, “I feel like a kid again.”

“Let’s take a look at the flight plan,” he said, and once more we went over the flight plan that I’d spent far too long the night before reading and re-reading.

“Looks good,” he said. “Weather looks good, so what say we go and check the aircraft and get moving.”

I grinned at him.

“I’m not the only one excited,” I said. “You’re eager to get on that twin engine job.”

“True,” he said. “But one leg at a time. I fuelled the Cessna up last night so she’s ready to go. Let’s go do the walk around.”

The walk around complete, we got into the cockpit and began the preflight checks. It took a little longer with Arnie, just because this was the first time we’d actually flown together. He took his responsibility as an instructor seriously. I didn’t complain. I was enjoying the whole experience and the anticipation of getting underway was probably going to be better than the actual flight. I knew that once we were in the air it would be quite a boring time. Three hours simply flying from point A to point B wasn’t exactly thrilling.

Eventually though we were ready to go, and I contacted the tower for clearance. In less than ten minutes we were trundling down the runway, and pulling into the air, before turning to head south.

It took a little time before Arnie got comfortable with my flying. Danny had spent quite a lot of time flying with me, and had grown used to what he called my ‘bad habits’. They weren’t ‘bad’ per-se, but they were different to the way he would have taught me had he taught me from scratch. The fact that nearly all of my flying knowledge came from Gerry, and he was a combat pilot with both fixed and rotary wing experience, as well as many thousands of hours flight time, meant that I sometimes did things slightly differently than Arnie had been taught to do them.

We were discussing some of those differences as we flew, when I started to feel a strange vibration in the aircraft.

“Feel that?” I said to Arnie.

He stopped talking for a second to concentrate.

“Yeah,” he said. “That doesn’t sound very good.”

I looked around. “What are our closest airfields?” I asked.

“You thinking we should put down?” he asked.

“You don’t?” I returned.

“It certainly sounds a little strange,” he said.

He looked at his tablet, which he had on his knee.

“We have Oakridge State and Aubrey Mountain behind us and Toketee State airport in front of us. Were almost midway between them. Then we have Crescent-Odell on our left wing but that’s further.

The vibration was getting worse.

“You think we should turn around and go back, or head down to Toketee?” I asked.

“There’s not much to choose between them,” he said. “They don’t have repair facilities there, so for preference Oakridge State since it’s nearer home, and we’re still slightly closer to that than Toketee.”

“Can you give me a heading?” I asked.

“Turn right,” he said, “heading 350.”

The vibration  was getting even worse as I banked the plane into a gentle right turn. Arnie keyed up the mike.

“Mayday Mayday Mayday, this is…”

It was at that very moment, that the propellor parted company with the plane.